India making regular payment for Iran crude: Pranab

New Delhi, Aug 12 (PTI) Asserting that Iran never
threatened to stop crude oil supply to India, the Government
on Friday said the problem of settling the import bill with
the Persian Gulf nation has been sorted out.
"We had some problem with regard to making payment for the
oil bill to Iran, but problem has been sorted out. Regular
payment is taking place now," Finance Minister Pranab
Mukherjee said in the Lok Sabha (lower house of Parliament).
He, however added that there were some outstandings,
"which in course of time we would like to clear by making the
payement".
India imports about 20 per cent of its crude oil
requirements from Iran.
On December 23, 2010 the RBI (Reserve Bank of India) said
that all trade-related payments to Iran had to be made outside
the Asian Clearing Union (ACU), a regional clearing house
through which most India-Iran trade was being conducted.
The order threw out a mechanism to pay for Iranian oil.
Mukherjee, however, said Iran never threatened to stop oil
supplies to India.
"I would like to dispel this impression that Iran has
threatened to stop supplying oil to India. Please do not
create scare in the country.
"It may be report of some newspaper, but officially Iran
has never told us that it is going to stop the supply," the
minister said in reply to a supplementary during the Question
Hour.
India imports 12 million barrels of crude oil every month
from Iran.